Wheels of Fire

Yet another in the assembly line of low budget "Mad Max" / "Road Warrior" ripoffs actually isn't bad at all, even if it IS derivative. Give credit to the extremely prolific producer & director Cirio H. Santiago: he takes the script by Frederick Bailey and just hits the ground running. He offers very little in the way of let-up, and plenty of action. Our hero could have used a touch more charisma, but he's passable, and the bad guys are such loathsome scum that it's satisfying to watch them come to their ends.

Gary Watkins ("The Long Riders", "Johnny Dangerously") stars as "Trace", a lone wolf in a post- apocalypse future. His kid sister Arlie (Playboy Playmate Lynda Wiesmeier) ends up abducted by the villainous Highway Warriors led by a power crazed goon appropriately named "Scourge" (Joe Mari Avellana, a familiar name to you if you've watched enough Filipino exploitation). With the help of a killer named "Stinger" (Laura Banks) and a young clairvoyant girl named "Spike" (Linda Grovenor), he takes on the scores of minions that come his way.

"Wheels of Fire" is going to be too nasty and hard-edged for some tastes. It will never be mistaken for a feminist statement. But those of you who love a bit of sleaze to go with your brainless futuristic thrills should be more than satisfied. Wiesmeier is made to go topless a great deal of the time, and at one point is tied spread eagle across the hood of a car. There's no excessive gore to concern more squeamish viewers, but that DOESN'T mean that this isn't still plenty violent. For example, Trace has a flamethrower mounted on his vehicle and he just LOVES to set guys on fire.

Performances are all perfectly suited to the material. They won't win Oscars, but who cares? Watkins is okay, and the ladies look just fine. Fortunately, both Banks and Grovenor get to be fairly heroic themselves and handle themselves capably in fight scenes. Avellana is a decent villain, Joseph Zucchero is amusing as a dude named "Whiz", and Jack S. Daniels is a hoot as a wretched piece of excrement named "Scag".

Acceptable genre entertainment gets its biggest boost from the rousing, full orchestral score by the talented Christopher Young ("Hellraiser").

Seven out of 10.

Wheels of Fire is another low-budget rip-off of The Road Warrior from Filipino director Cirio H. Santiago, packed with poorly executed action scenes, diabolical acting, and cruddy costumes and props (one motorbike is customised with what looks like plastic halloween pitchforks), all of which only serves to further illustrate just how brilliant George Miller's iconic movie actually is.

Gary Watkins plays Trace, a fearless warrior who takes on the evil Scourge (Joe Mari Avellana) and his ruthless gang after they kidnap and gang rape his sister Arlie (played by big-breasted blonde Playboy playmate Lynda Wiesmeier). On his mission, Trace teams up with tough female fighter Stinger (Laura Banks), telepath Spike (Linda Grovenor), and a dwarf who speaks a bizarre language (this character probably has a silly name as well, but I don't recall what it was).

With a race of subterranean albino cannibals and a cult of struggling survivors who are building a rocket to the planet Paradise, this one gets pretty silly at times, but Santiago's uninspired direction, the dreadful dialogue, and dismal performances ensure that boredom is never far away. Wiesmeir is game for being strapped topless to the hood of a speeding car, and Trace flame-throwing countless bikers is fun for a while, but the bulk of the film is pure post-apocalyptic poop.

3.5 out of 10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

Yes, this is a Road Warrior Rip off. The Vehicles, the bad guys, the good guy (who is pretty damn indestructible and, once again proves, never leave an enemy behind alive, as the bad guys do). The stunts are horrifically bad, the acting ranges from OK (Linda Weismeier's breasts, but she isn't a bad actress at all, by the standards of this pretty so bad it's good movie). The story is really non-existent, and the constant use of a flamethrower by the hero on bad guys didn't bother me at all (After all they were murderous rapists), but it did make me think of George Carlin's comment that Flamethrowers prove that someone really wanted to set a bunch of people on fire, but just couldn't reach them! My big question about this is, if it's the future, how come only muscle cars and automatic weapons seem to have survived? And how the hell did German MP-40 machine pistols survive into the future? Either way, this was way more enjoyable that Exterminators of the Year 3000, Rats: Night of Terror, The New Barbarians, After the Fall of New York and the totally atrocious, Warriors of the Wasteland. Worth a view.

Released by Roger Corman's New Concorde studios, this is a darn good rip-off of "The Road Warrior" from prolific Filipino director Cirio H. Santiago. Producer/director Santiago was known for his exploitation films, starting out in the 70s with a series of Blaxploitation films and then in the 80s focusing on low-budget Vietnam War pictures. Here Santiago takes to the desert areas of the Philippines (I never knew there was such a thing or maybe they were rock quarries) for a Max Max ripoff that tells the story of a nasty post-apocalyptic biker gang names the Highway Warriors who kidnap the sister of our hero who vows to bring her back and take the nasty gang down! It's a super cartoony of science fiction and action film, but Santiago knows his way around an action sequence and his film features more car chases than most of the Max Max knockoff, which is a major asset to the film. It also helps that the costumes and cars more closely resemble those from "The Road Warrior" than most of the low-budget knock-offs. The film also features an early score by Christoper Young ("Entrapment" "Swordfish" "Drag Me to Hell") who at this point in his career was scoring low budget exploitation films this, "Def-Con 4," "Avenging Angel" and "The Dorm That Dripped Blood" before moving onto more prestigious of film work. Despite its no-name cast, this was a pretty enjoyable warriors of the wasteland tale and is recommended for fans of this low-budget subgenera.

The only bad thing about this movie is the editing. There a few times when they cut out stuff that you really needed to see. This is definitely worth watching.